50 JUNE 2014 • WORLD AQUACULTURE • WWW.WAS.ORG The common octopus Octopus vulgaris is a good candidate for aquaculture because it meets many of the criteria for intensive aquaculture, such as having a short life cycle and rapid growth (Iglesias et al. 2000), ready adaptation to captive conditions (Boyle and Rodhouse 2005), high feed efficiency, high reproductive rate (Mangold and Boletzky 1973) and elevated nutritional value and market price. Octopus culture is currently limited to ongrowing of sub-adult individuals captured from the wild (Prato et al. 2010), although great effort has recently been made to rear O. vulgaris paralarvae. High mortality rates and poor paralarval growth resulting from nutritional imbalances have been identified as the main bottlenecks for aquaculture of this species (Navarro and Villanueva 2000). Because of high metabolic rate, rapid growth and limited nutritional reserves, octopus paralarvae must find enough energetic substrates with essential nutrients at early life stages. At present, only limited information regarding the nutritional requirements of octopus paralarvae is available. This information is necessary to develop feeds, including different types of live prey, enriched Artemia and inert commercial diets. The aim of this article is to summarize the state-of the-art knowledge of common octopus paralarvae culture, identifying current bottlenecks and emphasising relevant research areas being developed to overcome existing problems, and to promote the high potential of common octopus commercial production at facilities of the Oceanographic Centre of the Canary Islands (COC). The COC is part of the Spanish Institute of Oceanography, which has an Experimental Marine Culture Unit that has been exclusively dedicated to aquaculture research since 1980. Common Octopus Aquaculture in Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain): Outlook and Challenges Eduardo Almansa, Rodrigo Riera, José A. Pérez, Catalina Perales-Raya, Beatriz C. Felipe and Diana Reis Facilities Experimental facilities (Fig. 1) include hatchery, nursery, on-growing area and rearing tanks, allowing the conduct of largescale experiments and investigation of species at different stages of development. In addition, fully equipped laboratories make it possible to undertake studies in nutrition, physiology, histology, reproductive performance, feeding behavior and genetics of marine fish and cephalopods. Research on common octopus aquaculture began in 2000 and, since then, multiple research projects have been funded and scientific articles and national and international congress communications have been presented. This has resulted in a body of knowledge and expertise on paralarvae culture and a direct acquaintance with related problems, including the high mortalities and the pace of developmental events connected to the quality and quantity of food (Fig. 2). Systems for Octopus Paralarvae Culture A standardized protocol for common octopus rearing has not yet been developed, giving rise to high variability in the zootechnical conditions used in previous studies undertaken at the COC and other facilities. In experimental facilities of the COC, the first approach to optimizing paralarval culture conditions (12L:12D photoperiod, 21.0 ± 0.7 ºC water temperature and 36.8 ± 0.1 PSU salinity) was carried out in 100-L tanks (Fig. 3). Usually the duration of these experiments was 15 days and samples were collected for biometry, survival and/or biochemical composition determination. FIGURE 1. General view of facilities of the Oceanographic Institute of the Canary Islands (COC).
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